In the only big Stars news of the past few weeks, Brenden Morrow skated for the first time today!

It’s the first bit of non-depressing news that we’ve gotten in a while. In a way, I’m glad this team most likely won’t make the playoffs because it will give Brenden and our countless other injured players enough time to recover to come back at full force. Because we all know Brenden would play in Game 1, Round 1 if we do make it… and I just can’t stand to see him get hurt worse.

It’ll only be the second time I haven’t seen the Stars make the playoffs (last time in 2001-02), so I’m sort of depressed that I won’t get to partake in the duck, shark, and wing eating my parents and I did last year 😦

In the meantime, this blog may turn into a Blue Jackets/Wings support blog, because those are the two teams I’m going for in the playoffs.

If you want a relatively quick and comprehensive update on everything that went down at the deadline, feel free to look at the post underneath this one.

He already gets one big strike because he’s decided to wear #11 for the Stars since his #7 is retired in Dallas. Speaking of #11s, it would have been nicer to see Jeff Halpern coming back as our #11 this year. Morrison is also another left shot, which we definitely don’t need.

He’s played 62 games this season, and has 10 goals and 12 assists. He’ll be a UFA at the end of this season, so I don’t know if we’ll see him past this year. He played with Marty at the University of Michigan… *yawn*

9:38 am – I woke up a little later than planned this morning. I was actually so tired that I fell asleep during the postgame show last night and woke up at 2 am to some sort of weird infomercial playing on FSN. I’m sure the interviews were great last night, and I’m sad I missed them. So someone fill me in if you saw them!

So far there’s only been one trade today. Ottawa picked up Pascal Leclairefrom Columbus for Antoine Vermette. I don’t know much about Vermette, but Leclaire is a pretty good goalie. I believe he led the league last year in shutouts, but he lost the starting job in Columbus this year to another rookie goalie who’s leading the lead in shutouts (Mason). Leclaire had ankle surgery this year, and will be out for the rest of the season. Since Ottawa won’t be making the playoffs, this is definitely a move to improve next year.

Tradecentre says that Vermette is saying goodbye to his teammates in Ottawa right now. That’s one part I hate about the trade deadline – I feel so bad for all of these guys who have to pack everything up and move to a new city. On the upside though, Vermette should make the playoffs with Columbus this year.

Officially, Pronger has been taken off the trading list for this season. I bet it’s because his wife doesn’t want to move to a new city.

9:47 am: Tim Connolly has agreed to a 2-year, $9 mil contract. It’ll be a good deal for the Sabres if Connolly can manage to keep himself from getting strange and serious injuries for the next 2 seasons. *yawn* I feel bad that he has to live in Buffalo for another 2 years.

10:25 – Well I went to take a shower, but nothing happened in the 40 minutes I was gone. This is one of the most boring trade deadlines in history so far. Maybe the Stars and Lightning are diligently working on how to get Jeff Halpern back to the Stars.

OOH we have rumbles! TSN reports that Calgary and Phoenix are working on getting Olli Jokinen to go to Calgary. No news on who the Flames would give up for Jokinen. I don’t think Jokinen would be overly helpful since he’s never made the playoffs and has the reputation for being kind of a baby.

10:31 – TSN is interviewing Antoine Vermette on the phone. He says it’s a weird feeling to be traded and he doesn’t really want to leave the Sens locker room. This is the only team he’s played for, so I think the first trade makes it extra hard on the player. He seems happy to be going to a team that might make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Good luck in the West… it ain’t like the East out here, buddy.

10:39 Jordan Leopold headed to Calgary from Colorado for 2 prospects and a draft pick. Leopold is on the phone with TSN and sounds pretty excited to go back to Calgary. I guess the air is always better in 3rd place than it is in 15th.

Neither of them are getting traded, but I just felt like adding a happy picture

As most of you probably already know, the trade deadline is tomorrow. I’m not expecting the Stars to do nearly as much as they did last year (I don’t think they can top last year in terms of nice guys leaving and big names coming in). Luckily, I don’t have class until 4:30 tomorrow afternoon, so I’ll be covering the news for most of the day tomorrow.

I just want to ask Hulljack to NOT trade for a left-handed center. Thank you 🙂

Sean Avery was officially picked up by the New York Rangers today on recall waivers. This means he is GONE from the Stars. We still have to pay half of his salary for the rest of his contract, but he is no longer a member of the organization. Godd riddance!

That means Brenden can go back to hating him now.

This will be the last mention of Avery ever on this blog unless he does something stupid like get himself hit by a bus.